


A Forgotten Time

by NightDragon5656



Category: Voltron - Fandom
Genre: Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Bottom Keith (Voltron), Galra Keith, Gay Keith (Voltron), Keith gets kidnapped, Keith is suicidal, Keith may have schizophrenia-I’m not completely sure how it will turn out, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Top Lance, top Lotor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 20:01:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17107214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightDragon5656/pseuds/NightDragon5656
Summary: In the midst of a great battle, a blood curdling scream erupts from one of the Paladins of Voltron. Purple lightning engulfs the lion, eliminating the possibility to identify the colour. Who owns the voice that rung out and nearly deafened the other Paladins? And can they truly be saved? Mental injuries are harder to heal than physical ones.





	1. Shriek

**Author's Note:**

> This will be set where Keith is in Red, Lance in Blue, Shiro in Black, Pidge in Green and Hunk in Yellow. So basically the original with Coran and Allura on the side in the castle... so not really on the side at all. Also, Keith doesn’t know who his mother is, nor that he is Galra, so yeah, that’ll be quite a big part of this. Anyway, this includes some swearing and all round explicit language. So yeah, that’s a disclaimer. More notes at the end and sorry for any puns and or references I put in this and future chapters. ON WITH THE STORY~!

Sounds erupted all around him, some he could distinguish such as gun shots ringing out and yells from both his teammates and the enemy. Some were harder to make out, such as his breathing growing more and more irregular as the battle proceeded; the fact of which he was not yet aware of, and the fast thumping originating from his heart. Screams of all people pummelled his ears and Keith had to focus explicitly hard as to not get distracted. 

The roar of his lion sounded, warning the purple-grey forms around to surrender. Of course the Galra would never do such a thing. It was victory or death after all, right? He had to agree that it was a good line to go by in the stressful times of war. 

Realising what he’d just thought, Keith shook his head violently and focussed once again on the battle at hand. 

Just as he was getting back in the game, three small fighter jets set their guns to his lion and began to fire abruptly at him. In a blue flash they were all blown into oblivion, nothing more than scraps of metal. A voice blasted through the coms “Keith, get your head in the game, dumbass! Lives are at stake here.” Keith snarled and turned his lion to see Lance fly past in Blue, it’s laser blowing apart another small fighter jet. He spurred Red into motion and passed Lance in a mere two ticks and raced ahead of him, using Red’s fire laser to blast some fighter jets, then quickly moving on to another small squadron that had joined the fight just dobashes ago. 

“Oh no you don’t!” Keith could almost feel Lance’s smirk as he blew up more fighter jets to Keith’s left.

“You—!” Keith twisted his lion so she was facing Blue and sent a laser their way, just avoiding skimming Blue and taking out four fighter jets in one go. His anger could have been coming off him in red waves had it been tangible. However along with said anger, he could feel a slight playfulness blossom inside his chest, one that would always appear when he and Lance bickered and challenged each other. “Oh you’re going down Pretty-Boy!” He sped up, taking down fighter jet after fighter jet, practically sensing Lance doing the same somewhere in the area. 

“Guys, it’s good that you’re taking out the enemy but we really just need to take out those ion cannons on the larger ships, ignore the smaller ones for a bit will you?” Shiro’s tired voice commanded the pair through the coms, making them both feel slightly guilty; Keith more so. “Sorry Shiro, I’m on it now. Lance you take the one to the right, I’ll get the left one.”

“Got it.” 

Both Paladins sped off in opposite directions, dodging the shots fired their way from the fighter jets. A purple light caught Keith’s eye and he looked up only to slam the controls to move his lion quickly away from the oncoming ion cannon shot. It fired, missing Keith by little more than a few inches. He could feel the scorching heat it left in its wake. “Shit. That was close.” A blaring red warning sign flared up on the holographic screen in front of him which seemed to trigger another in his head. But for different reasons. 

Whereas his lion caught wind of another ion cannon preparing to blast him, Keith sensed an evil presence so sinister that a shiver went down his spine and his blood ran cold. So cold it was almost as if he froze.

And that’s exactly what he did. 

Two blasts of bright purple light hit him at once. One from the ion cannon which hit his lion like a bulldozer hitting a football, forcing his lion to spin off further out into the dark depths of space. 

The other light took the form of lightning, also seemingly purple, a black tinge could also be seen mixing with the former. Instead of hitting his lion, it infiltrated it; searching for something inside. 

He was wrong; that something was a someone.

Keith let out a blood curdling shriek.

Pain like nothing he had ever felt before tore at his body; it tore off his skin in strips and broke his bones with a sledgehammer, his organs were forcefully ripped out with clawed hands and he could feel warm blood spurt from his wounds, coating the inside of his lion. It mangled and mutilated his body until he was nothing but a mess of flesh and blood. Yet he could only just hear voices shouting for him over his own screams. If he could move his mangled form he would have winced at them. His shrieks drowned out all else as the pain, if it was even possible, intensified. The voices of his friends could no longer be heard, even as a whisper inside his mind. His voice now drowned out even the voices that were always in his head. And he wondered in a short moment of numbness how his vocal chords were not broken already. Then the pain returned.

***

He had no idea how long he had endured the relentless pain. Time didn’t seem to exist. Or maybe he had just forgotten due to his agony. 

A forgotten time.

Darkness presented itself to Keith as a relief, a saviour. It welcomed him into it, and Keith willingly sought it out, sought out a freedom from this pain. It engulfed him welcomingly, like an old friend, a family member. Maybe it was his mother whom he had never met. Maybe she was the owner of this sweet embrace. Yes. That must be it.


	2. Hysterical

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This’ll be in Lance’s point of view during the battle and, more specifically when Keith gets hit by the ‘lightning’. I will continue to flick between Keith and Lance in future chapters and each point of view will be their own chapter, if that makes sense? Which means I should probably say that more often than not Lance’s chapters will be shorter than Keith’s as I prefer writing as Keith and relate more. Also, he’s in a more interesting situation-well that’s my opinion at least. So sorry if you prefer Lance, but meh, my choice. 😂

The coms exploded with a high pitched awful noise that forced Lance to cover his ears in pain. 

It continued for who knows how long until the noise became quieter, more drawn out. Fading. It was only then that Lance realised what it was. A scream. 

A knife sharp scream of pain and despair. 

He looked to his right to see the Green and Yellow lions speeding about wildly, fighting off an enormous amount of fighter jets that had come onto them in swarms. Which meant that neither of them were the ones screaming. He knew Shiro’s scream; he had been forced to hear it so many times over the course of his time as a Paladin of Voltron. This wasn’t it. His lion’s head turned so that he could see the Castle. It’s barrier was still up and it was shooting down ship after ship. Definitely not Allura or Coran then. Which meant...

“Oh fuck. Oh dios mio. KEITH!”

His lion whipped around to witness the Red lion caught in purple lightning, focussed very much in the pilot’s area of it. 

When Blue’s camera zoomed in, he had to watch Keith convulsing and screaming with a dark liquid running from his ears that Lance hoped was not what he thought it was. Lance urged Blue to zoom in further only to see Keith’s face in full detail. 

His eyes were wide and the pupils so small from both pain and what Lance suspected was fear that the pupils almost didn’t seem to even exist. He was crying profusely and the tears seemed to have mixed with dark blood. 

Lance vaguely heard, above Keith’s ever present shrieks, the voices of his other teammates shouting in fear and confusion. His eyes traveled down to the lightly blue shaded screens in front of him and skimmed through the possible attacks he could use to help Keith. With a wave of helplessness, Lance realised that he could do nothing to help him, nothing at all. 

Nothing alone.

“Hunk get over here right now, I need you to help me get Keith away from the attack on him, stat!” The Blue Paladin could faintly hear someone shouting back at him but he didn’t care, he could hardly register what was being yelled at him over the rushing of blood in his ears. The anger he felt was alike nothing he had ever felt. It made his blood boil, his muscles tense up so tight that if he had a spare thought to care he would have worried he would tear one of them. Shaking slightly, Lance curled his hands into fists and bared his teeth, grinding them together in a menacing way even though he knew no-one could see him. 

The familiar sound of thrusters played their heated melody in his ears as he registered it as Hunk’s lion racing toward him. “Is that Keith in there?” Silence was the affirmation to Hunk’s terrified voice and he inhaled sharply as he understood the situation. 

Lance wasted no time in urging his lion forwards, toward the still screaming and unresponsive Keith who, from what Lance could see, was arching his back, the veins in his neck coming out a stark blue against his pale skin from the agony he must be enduring. 

A growl from behind him answered his lion’s own as both the Blue and Yellow Lions tore off in Keith’s direction. They both collided with the Red Lion and shoved it outside the lightning’s reach, them themselves getting hit with it in turn for a short amount of time. 

This pain, even though it was brief, dragged a scream from inside him and agony to his being. After it was over he was still left panting and in shock; this is what Keith had been enduring for so long? How? 

Lance looked up from his trembling hands to see Keith’s lifeless body limp and immobile in the pilot seat of his lion. The sight called forth another shout and he turned his furious gaze upwards to find the thing that had caused Keith so much pain. His gaze was met with glowing, yellow eyes illuminating a sinister grin beneath a purple hood, leaving the rest of the face in deep shadows. The grin seemed to split the face in two and revealed elongated fangs reminiscent of the Galra. Sure enough, when Lance looked past the shadows, he identified purple-grey tinted skin and to his horror, sharp red lines similar to the shape and depth of scars running down beneath and over the two glowing orbs right down and past the mouth.

Haggar.


	3. Madness

He was wrong.

He had been tricked. 

This wasn’t what he was supposed to feel. 

He thought the pain was over?

He was so very wrong. 

This was a lie filled with menacing hysteria. 

He was it’s chosen prey. 

He couldn’t be saved. 

This was where he would be ended. 

Alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, a really short chapter here but the next will be a longer one, I promise. This was to get a feel of the things Keith would be feeling/thinking so that I could incorporate them into the next chapter.


	4. Madness p.2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Agh! I hate this chapter but I spent so long tweaking it and trying to make it right that I just gave up and posted this shit chapter. I hope you like it even though I don’t though 😂.   
> Please the people, am I right? Joking, not really but still. Enjoy and ON WITH THE STORY!!!

Keith tried to scream. 

It was a relief from the pain he felt elsewhere. 

But something stopped him from doing so, something calming held his mouth shut and he would have panicked even more if he had not found that he wanted to do as this being said. 

As if on cue, it whispered “Stop.” 

He did. 

Keith stopped struggling against the invisible bonds and the something that had held his mouth shut slowly disappeared into nothingness. Yet he did not even attempt to scream again. His mouth shut and settled into a relaxed position, his eyelids became slack and his whole being seemed to relax willingly. The pain so clear only moments ago had fallen away, forgotten. He felt it was nice to hand over control to somebody else for once. Such bliss he could not achieve himself had to come from this other being. 

The bonds snaked their way back into what he thought was the ground, though it was hard to tell in this white world. There was no sense of up or down, left or right. Only the shade white surrounded him and gave him this ecstasy. 

It was endless. 

Nothing actually existed in here. Nothing except him. Keith was completely alone and yet still managed to live through this time in a comfortable silence he did not want to leave. He could not and would not miss anything or anyone from the outside here. He was simply too trapped in this peace. 

It was that last thought that changed something in his head. 

Trapped. 

He was trapped. 

Keith’s senses suddenly woke up, immediately getting a claustrophobic sensation. It tore deep into his lungs until he could barely breathe. He was on the very edge between life and death if his loss of breath was anything to go by. The boy felt fear bubble up inside of him and it clenched unrelenting and tight around his quickly pumping heart. It squeezed every so often as if to mock him. 

He was alone in this endless world, left immobile as suffering racked through his veins, laughing at him all the while. It was then that he realised the laughing was actually all around him, derived from dark beings that stood in a tight circle surrounding the boy. Keith suddenly felt very small. The dark beings were static at the edges and were a deep shade of black but he could still make out the faces of his friends plastered onto them. 

His friends stood there, laughing and mocking him as he stood frozen with fear and shock. Keith’s wide eyes stared around and settled upon Shiro who mouthed “Pathetic.” at him and laughed when he watched the smaller boy pale considerably and begin to tremble. Violet eyes now darted around to the others and found that they were all mouthing the same thing, all with eldritch grins spread across their faces. Tears welled up in his eyes and now Keith struggled to make out the words being mouthed at him. He turned to Allura and through the blur, he just saw her mouth form the words “Half-breed.” 

A sudden pain in his knees told him he had fallen to the floor. Violently shaking hands moved up to cover his face which was now facing the ground, eyes still wide and staring, still seeing the people he cared about most throwing him away. A hand on his shoulder made Keith look up, hopeful that he would be taken back. Lance faced him, not a trace of a smile left on his face. In fact all it held was apparent sorrow. Dread pooled in Keith’s stomach. 

“We don’t need you anymore.”

His world shattered. 

Lance’s abandonment of Keith resounded in his ears like a mantra; over and over again did it break his walls until they appeared as nothing but fragmented pieces of now lost barriers. 

Already thin and delicate, this one final hit completely scorched his world. 

Tears completely blurred his vision and it swam in internal pain as emotions burst out of him and he let out a strangled yell. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the shadow forms of his friends, their truths, melt into the whiteness around them. And now Keith was ultimately alone once more. 

Chocked sobs burst out of him and shudders racked his trembling form; he shut his eyes tight as a last feeble attempt to stop this torture. He had hidden in such a deep corner of his messed up mind that he did not notice the white around him dissolve into a grey that steadily became darker. He did not notice that the white world he had been in had become a wormhole of black nothingness.

***

He still shut his eyes when he felt a pressure lift from his trembling form, as well as a higher temperature hitting his body. 

He still sobbed uncontrollably when he felt something warm and loving envolope him in a sort of sweet embrace. But he lent into it. It was a strange form of escapism to fall deeper into this embrace, it somehow comforted him and after a short while that felt like an eternity to Keith, the chocked sobs that racked his body left him to pure serenity. 

“Keith?”

Keith’s eyes flew wide open though all he saw was a blue and grey form. It startled him and he pushed it away only to see the blue and grey form take the shape of Lance who was kneeling with his arms still wide open, a hurt look present on his face. At the sight Keith scrambled back even further, nails scratching the metallic floor wildly in his attempt to get away. A small whimper left his mouth and he turned fear-filled eyes to the other people he now realised were watching him in confusion. Keith's mouth opened yet now sound left him, he was only left gaping at the people he now recognised as both the ‘static people’ and his former friends. 

 

“H-hey? You okay, Keith?” Keith turned his eyes on the boy in blue, who was still kneeling where Keith had left him. 

Keith opened his mouth again, and once more, no sound left him. It was as if he couldn’t form words anymore. So instead he shook his head, moving backwards again until a loud thump sounded; before Keith could register what happened, a sharp pain made him cry out. He returned to silence and just panted heavily, realising the cold feeling of metal on his back. He also realised that he was not wearing his normal attire. Instead, he was clothed in a white gown, not unlike a hospital gown, he thought in shock. 

Again, he looked up and stared at the ‘static people’ in confusion. Shiro moved forwards cautiously, as if Keith was a dangerous animal, and smiled slightly, opening his arms in a show of openness and peace. Keith gazed at him almost sorrowfully, willing himself to believe all was okay and he hadn’t been abandoned by them. 

“What the Hell? Why aren’t you saying anything?“ 

Keith’s eyes filled with terror once more, terror that had been lost just moments earlier was brought back by the loud, crushing voice of Lance penetrating the silence of the room. 

He tried to mouth something at Lance, but his answering look of confusion told Keith that he hadn’t understood. The boy struggled to mime something to Shiro, it took a while but finally the older of the two understood and ran off to find a pen and paper. 

Keith was left with Lance and the others who were staring intently at him. It made his skin crawl. All became even worse once Lance began approaching him, eyes steady and waiting.

The closer Lance got, the closer Keith came to bursting out into tears from the horrific memories rising from Keith’s mind again. 

Finally, as Lance stood just one foot from Keith, he stopped but crouched down and stared into Keith’s petrified eyes. 

“I’m sorry for shouting, what’s wrong though?”

Gentle words came from a gentle place in the heart but Keith felt it was a lie. He just felt it. The boy shook his head before staring at something behind Lance. 

Lance’s ‘truth’ had appeared in its static form again. 

“Die you pathetic half-breed monster.” Like before, it chanted the words and it only took a few repeats to have Keith shaking, curled in on himself even more and holding his hands up to his ears, clamping down hard. He shook his head but the voice only grew louder, now joined by others repeating different chants. 

“You’ll never be a part of our team.”

“I wish I’d never met you.”

“You should leave.” 

He looked up once more at Lance’s static figure only to see it peer down at him and reach out as if to snuff the life out from the quivering boy. The hand that touched his shoulder was cold and sent shivers down his nervous system. It sent blood rushing in his ears and a tightness in his chest beyond the stage of agony. Another blood curdling scream filled the air, turning it to ice, to harsh flickering flames, to a deep darkness that sunk into each and everything in that room. 

The static beings loved it. 

They laughed loudly in Keith’s ears sending the boy into more internal agony, his limbs jerking and eyes rolling back into his head from it. 

Keith vaguely heard hurried footsteps and a hand lay on his shoulder yet again, this time he flinched away from it in a desperate lurching movement. By this point his vision was so blurred from tears that he couldn’t see anything apart from blurred forms moving about and the static figures ever present at the back of the room now, laughing at him mercilessly. 

Eventually, everything subsided and the static figures disappeared. Along with Keith’s shrill shrieks. His breathing was heavy and shaky, coming out ragged and painful. 

The boy vaguely heard voices but they seemed muffled, almost as if he was stuck underwater. As time passed the voices became clearer and he was able to understand what they said. 

“—eith, it’s okay, you’re safe. Don’t worry.” Shiro was kneeling close beside him and Keith flinched instinctively from the close proximity between the two. 

“Calm down, everything is alright.” Lance’s voice joined Shiro’s but unlike Shiro’s whose stayed next to him, Lance’s arm reached out towards Keith. 

“N-no please. Please don’t h-hurt me. I d-don’t want this. Somebody h-help.” Keith began muttering quickly and low under his breath, the two Paladins in front of him only just able to register what he’d said. “L-Lance...”

Lance perked up and stared at Keith intently, waiting for him to continue. 

“Don’t abandon me again.” 

Full sobs racked his body and he curled in on himself even more, if that was even possible but was met with a few gasps from further away, and a sharp intake of breath from the younger boy kneeling right in front of him. 

“—would never.” Lance hissed the words and brought his arms around Keith who tried desperately and in vain to get out of them. Something snapped inside the boy and he leaned into Lance’s embrace, burying his head into his neck whilst resting it on his shoulder. 

“I’m not pathetic.”

“You’re not pathetic.” Lance repeated, now rubbing circles into Keith’s back. 

“I’m not a monster?” It was more of a question, which Lance hurriedly denied. 

“You are certainly not a monster.” 

“So... You don’t want me to leave?” 

“Don’t even think about it. I would never.” 

“I shouldn’t die?” It was barely audible, only something Lance could hear.

Lance’s breath hitched for a second before pressing me even closer into him and whispered “Never. Stay with us... with me.” into my ear. 

Quite suddenly, arms wrapped around me and I saw Pidge’s small arms curl around me and Lance. Another pair of arms-Hunk’s-embrace the three Paladins and he is quickly followed by both Allura and Coran. Shiro joined last, hugging the six people fondly and was greeted by a sigh from Keith. It almost sounded like a sigh of relief. 

***

As the last one on the hug pile, it was easiest to get off and Shiro did so with a small smile on his lips. Slowly and steadily, the others began to peel away from Keith and he was free from that slightly claustrophobic embrace. 

“It’s late. We should all get a good nights sleep.” He smiled and it reached his eyes, ringing them with a warmth Keith felt like he hadn’t seen in years though it had only been since he first met those static people. 

In the Cryo-pod wasn’t the first time he had seen them, nor the first time they had spoken to him. That had started ages ago, just not this bad. But as the days wore on it was becoming more and more frequent. 

“T-thanks g-guys.” Keith began to try and stand up but had to be supported by Lance who gave him a quick yet sad smile before leading him out of the room. 

“To your room?” Keith nodded, still slightly unconvinced of the team’s words and actions of the last few minutes/dobashes. 

***

When they got there, Keith kept an arm on Lance’s shoulder as he leaned forward to press the code to gain entry into his own room. 

“Now I know the code, Keith.”

“Why would you want it anyway?”

Silence followed his question and a thought struck Keith ‘what if he would try to kill me in my sleep?’. He knew deep down it was a stupid thought, but Lance’s static being had told him to die. Maybe Lance and the others truly thought he should. 

With that he pushed off of Lance with a grunt and stumbled into his room, making headway for his bed. 

“Hey, you sure you’re alright?”

Lance’s concerned voice made Keith’s head turn from where he now sat on the bed. Just as the door began to slide shut, Keith threw out a few words. 

“Did I ever say that?”

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, this is my first fanfic so well, I’m sorry? 😂 No but I hope you really enjoy it and read the story unfold. Also, I think I should mention that I’m a teenager, so some of the chapters might get a bit dark, plus my mind is already pretty fucked up so yeah. Also also, the posting will be pretty erratic and I may even forget that I am supposed to be writing this, which also means there might be gaps in uploads for weeks at a time before I remember. Sorry for any grammatical mistakes and or spelling mistakes. Enjoy! 🤷😂🖤💙


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